Wonkette
Here is a clip of Dick Cheney discussing the secret-but-becoming-unsecret Other Plan To Kill Muslins (OPTKM) with CIA Field Ops head Eric “The Hulk” Bana, who simply must not tell Congressional leaders about these things. Now the Guardian has new information about OPTKM, and by golly something just seems to be missing.
Ta-da:
Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate of al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.
Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.
The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.
First of all, Meh, because obviously the CIA had people in every country trying to kill Al Qaeda leaders everywhere after 9/11; these “assassinations” are slightly more justifiable than those that made CIA assassinations illegal, such as popping up in Cuba to pretend to kill Fidel Castro for nationalizing U.S. business interests. Also, why was it still around for eight years if it never developed into anything? It could still be going on RIGHT NOW, in your home!
The official said he believes from conversations with serving members of the CIA that the area of real concern in Congress is that the planned operations may also have involved the covert surveillance of American citizens, a particularly sensitive subject in the US.
There appears to be common agreement among knowledgeable former intelligence officials that the controversy goes beyond the immediate question of assassination and capture of al-Qaida operatives as there have been numerous killings and detentions since the 9/11 attacks. One former official said that the Bush administration discussed the assassination question in the context of a ban introduced in the 1970’s in response to several failed CIA attempts to murder Fidel Castro and concluded that as the US had declared itself at war with Al-Qaida and the Taliban the ban did not apply. [...]
Some former intelligence officials and Republicans have attempted to portray the programme as barely getting out of the planning stages but others in the intelligence community have said it is highly unlikely that the CIA would have kept such an operation going for eight years without advancing it.
Somehow this trail will lead to John Ensign asking his parents for money.
CIA planned al-Qaida assassinations in friendly countries, officials say [Guardian]
“Friendly if unreliable?” They don’t owe us money, do they?
Our government is sick, corrupt, evil, and irredeemably rotten to the core. The end.
This could go a long way to explain Cheney’s “accidental” shooting of his friend while quail hunting.
I would not be against some of these things the CIA want to do, if they didn’t seem like a bunch of morons.
There has to be something besides the fact that we were planning to kill people in “friendly” foreign countries. We are doing that now and no one cares. No one in the US anyway. I presume that the people getting killed care, though with the foreigns it’s sometimes hard to tell.
They’ll just rename it Blackbriar, for the sequels.
Hooray For Anything: That old judge/hunting-buddy was the leader of the Tamil Tigers or something? Then I guess you’re right!
Just wait until 2032 when a big name, elitist Hollywood filmmaker (probably a gay, definitely Jewish) makes “Halls of PNAC” (named for where the plot was hatched by brave, flat-footed patriots, not where the attack occurred. besides Richard Bruce (Wayne) “Batman” Cheney fucking hates NYC.) This film will win 13 oscars and vindicate our lord and savior from the evils of liberal monday morning quarterbacks who didn’t say or do anything for FIVE AND A HALF YEARS!!! (mixing shit a bit, but that’s called dramatic license, fukkers.) Then Cheney’s grandkid (raised by the gay daughter) can rightfully ascend to the throne to become the first non-closeted gay to be Prez’nit. (Because teh gayness is learned and a choice.) THE END.
If it’s Cheney, the program probably involves the worst thing you can possibly think of; it probably horrified most of the Guardian staff writers into a coma, leaving them only able to describe it using the file name “alqaedaleaders.ppt”
So my guess is recruiting Al-Qaeda leaders by giving them a large portion of the 9-11 Victims’ Fund in order to stage a worldwide puppy-kicking performance piece.
Cheney will be riding bikes with bush in 2032.
Somehow this trail will lead to John Ensign asking his parents for money.
Either that or the trail will lead from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine, somehow going through Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Was the Kenya one where they stab the guy with an icicle and it melts, so no witnesses? I can see where that might go awry in Nairobi.
“First of all, Meh, ”
extrajudicial killings and all you say is ‘meh’?
talk about the banality of evil.
Eric Bana is really hot. The Other Boleyn Girl(his other political film) was wretched except for the 5 seconds he has his shirt off. This thread was about Bana and his hotness, right?
I’m positive members of Cheney’s program looked nothing like Eric Bana. I picture a bizarro version of the Bourne movies with a Gigli-era Ben Affleck.
and not just extra judicial killings…
secret extra judicial killings by the secret police branch of a government,
with the collusion of the highest authorities to violate the laws against
such things happening in the first place.
it is one thing to pass a law authorizing extrajudicial killing of military targets
it is another thing to say ‘fuck the law, well do what we want’
hey ‘meh’ to some people…. people who study secret police organizations and their histories might have a problem with this.
Jim, I think you have been taken in by a hoax. That film clip cannot be of Dick Cheney, since it is clearly filmed in daylight.
Hooray For Anything: Did Cheney just break? Or was his lawyer friend really a secret Muslim and Cheney was taking him out on his own authority?
The creepiest thing about this to me is that Panetta only found out about it after being in charge of the CIA for, what, six months? I mean, did someone come into his office last week and say, “Hey, Leon, here’s your twice-annual report on that whole super-secret don’t-tell-Congress assassination dealie we’ve got going on?”
I usually think the CIA is far too bumbling to actually be engaged in the sort of shadowy secret-government things they’re accused of, but the fact that stuff like this is happening outside the control of even the nominal agency heads is creepy as hell. It reminds me of a story that I heard that Carter, soon after his election, asked (joking, probably) then-CIA head Poppy Bush what the deal was with UFO aliens, and Poppy replied (joking, I HOPE) that that information was need-to-know only and Carter didn’t need to know.
finallyhappy: That’s ok. It was the first thing I thought of as well. That, and secret CIA-Al Qaida assasinations in my home.
I generally believe that if we send Eric Bana to other countries to kill Muslims, most people will be too star struck by his rugged charm to get very upset by it.
Lionel Hutz Esq.: I don’t know why Cheney shot the dude but I think it’ll be in Seymour Hersh’s next big story in the New Yorker.
Hmm, all that work and ZERO effort to kill Osama bin Laden? Why’s that Cheney? With OBL out of the picture, your reason for life ceases to exist?
“Carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.”
Embarrassment in that the agent couldn’t go through with the attempt after seeing his target was a family man and then got amnesia during his escape attempt?
TJBeck: Gah, late to the party again.
decora: meh.
It’s so pathetic that I de-lurked (after months of happily reading Wonkette on a daily basis) to say this: Mmmmm, Bana.
I want to hear more about this “embarrassing” military killin’ in Kenya. Are all of Barack’s relatives accounted for? WATERBOARD CHENEY NOW!!!!11!!1
There was some ranting about this yesterday, and I was spanked for mis-spelling one word and being too ernest or something. So, to sum up: there is nothing new under the sun, and with the CIA: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Such shenanigans have been happening since the inception of the CIA but may have had a few more insidious twists inserted by dickbreath cheney.
Won’t somebody think of the children?
Josh Fruhlinger: For years there has been a group of people trying to form their own independent version of the CIA within the CIA — one that had no oversight and operated pretty much on its own with barely any contact from legal authorities. Iran-Contra was going to be the start of another such operation, if William Casey had had his way.
Instead, what happened was that the plan got found out (because it was being run by idiots, maybe?) and Casey suddenly developed a brain tumor and died, whereupon he was blamed for simply everything.
Jesus. All this shit is in Jane Mayer’s book, The Dark Side. The first few chapters. Why is this news only now? Oh yeah, Michael died.
It’s interesting that this assassination stuff is coming out at the same time that Dr. David Kelly — the guy who allegedly killed himself in the woods just before testifying about how British intelligence sexed up the Iraq WMD dossier — starts getting attention again. Coincidence? Might the Brits not be pleased at what comes out?
Teh Grauniad seems to have grown an extra pair of balls lately … they’ve been breaking stories like crazy for the past few weeks.
I suppose the old crack about the Guardian’s being the best paper in America is really not funny at this point.
It is obvious to me that this is all Bill Clinton’s fault. He must have used his super mind powers to get Cheney to break the law. It is just something Clinton excels at. Those of you who blame Cheney himself are ignoring the glaring facts.
Which one of them was playing the Cloned Giant Squid With The Friggin’ Laser Beam attached to its mantle?
True story: I attended the opening of “Munich” in a theater in West L.A. While walking out, one of The Tribe commented about “how humane the Israelis were,” in terms of protecting women and children “even while fighting terrorists,” etc.
I very politely asked her if she had ever seen what happens to women and children within the blast radius of a 1000 lb. Mk 82 bomb dropped from an F-16I, e.g., the concussion blows their guts out of their mouths and assholes.
She got all upset for some reason.
Better to talk to the Giant Squids, I guess. Unless the subject is sperm whales, maybe.
I am confused by the clip. Why is Hector talking to Captain Barbosa?
My favorite scene in Munich is when they blow up the hotel room in Greece. They go in afterwards, and no one says anything about the torso in the ceiling fan.
My second favorite is when Eric Bana is fucking his wife, but thinking about blowing up arabs.
Prommie:
heh. Genius.
Thank God at least the Brits still have a few investigative reporters…